The invention relates to a process and an apparatus for stabilizing the course angle of a ship. By course angle is understood here the angle between the heading and the North.
As a rule, the desired course of a ship can be maintained only by continually applying small corrections to the course. Without these continual corrections a course-unstable ship shows a tendency to keep turning either to port or to starboard. There is no preference for a direction of the turning; the turning is initiated by the prevailing conditions such as sea state, wind, irregularities in the ship's form, etc.
The extent of the course instability of a specific ship is difficult to predict quantitatively but qualitatively there is tendency of the course instability to become more serious according as the ship's form is blunter and fuller. This is the case particularly with large loaded tankers and here it is of great importance to take measures aimed at improving the steerability of the ship. The invention indicates ways and means of achieving important improvements in this respect.